Talk of the Town: John takes bus to memory lane

HE is a manager whom all Hibs fans will remember fondly – not least for bringing them some small measure of cup success.

So supporters of the Easter Road team would have been pleased to see John Collins, now the Livingston director of football, back in the Capital and taking in some of the sights with his family.

And it seems that the ex-Scotland International, who led Hibs to triumph in the 2007 Scottish League Cup, was in a mood to re-live his glory days – by taking an open-top bus tour around the Capital.

Sadly for John, this wasn’t flanked by cheering supporters, but was one of the city’s many tour buses, but in the absence of any other cup success it was the best he could do.

Ken kens about Twitter

WHILE we don’t usually go in for celebrity endorsements, it’s hard not to be chuffed after boxing legend ken Buchanan MBE took to Twitter to describe the Evening News as “the best local paper around”.

And we’re sure he didn’t have an ulterior motive – even if he did go on to say “can you announce I’m on Twitter please”.

The eyes on the spies

HERE at Talk of the Town we share the confusion and concern of one Edinburgh citizen, who tweeted: “Why has ‘MI5 lookout post’ been chalked on the wall of the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh for the last 3 months?” with an accompanying picture of the surprisingly durable notice.

It’s not quite the covert measure you might expect.

Panda baby is a hot bet

BABY Giant Pandas are so rare that the entire species is threatened with extinction – but that hasn’t stopped a Scottish bookie admitting it is concerned that Edinburgh’s own Tian Tian will conceive this year.

McBookie.com has been inundated with bets backing the arrival of a panda baby this year, and have now slashed the odds on the pair producing a cub in 2013 from 14/1 to 7/1, admitting “women in particular, have been going crazy for the panda special”.